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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29676735">Symphonies</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd'>Vagrant_Blvrd</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:34:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29676735</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“I don’t understand,” Din says, focused on prying a shiny rock out of Grogu’s mouth. “If your sister is a princess, wouldn’t that make you a prince as well?”</p><p>His logic is sound, Luke gives him that, but as Luke continues to learn the more he and Leia cautiously look into their lineage, it’s not so clear-cut.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Minor or Background Relationship(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>541</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Symphonies</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Based on this <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29052918/chapters/72906600">not!fic of mine</a> from Luke's POV.</p><p>:D?</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I don’t understand,” Din says, focused on prying a shiny rock out of Grogu’s mouth. “If your sister is a princess, wouldn’t that make you a prince as well?”</p><p>His logic is sound, Luke gives him that, but as Luke continues to learn the more he and Leia cautiously look into their lineage, it’s not so clear-cut.</p><p>Luke shrugs, poking at the fire with a stick more out of something to do than anything useful. Actually, with the look Din sends him as the logs shift, sending up a shower of sparks, he’s probably undoing Din’s hard work from earlier.</p><p>“It’s...complicated,” he says, which apparently is the entire Skywalker way of being.</p><p>(When Luke met Ahsoka she’d given him this smile, fond and affectionate and this sorrow woven through it all, and told him he was definitely Anakin Skywalker’s son.</p><p>The fact Luke had just jumped out a window to catch a speeder piloted by an assassin moments before only brought up more questions on Luke’s part, to be honest.)</p><p>Din hisses, yanking his hand back and checking his fingers I the light the fire casts. Luke can’t see any blood, but Grogu has sharp teeth and stubborn determination to match Din’s, if not surpass it it when the situation merits.</p><p>“We talked about biting,” Din says, voice firm, no-nonsense and stern angle of his had that has Grogu’s ears drooping as he shuffles his feet.</p><p>Luke smiles, ducking is head so Din won’t see it, and says, “Only do it if you draw blood?”</p><p>There’s a little thread of amusement from Grogu through the Force, echoed by a matching one from Din who ruthlessly quashes it because he sees himself as the responsible parent, which, <i>ha</i>.</p><p>Grogu’s shared Din and his many misadventures before Luke caught up to them on Gideon’s cruiser with Luke, and anyone who thinks being eaten whole by a krayt dragon is a good idea is not a responsible anything.</p><p>“<i>No</i>,” Din says, and Luke smothers a laugh with a hand over his mouth there to scratch at the stubble growth on his face. It’s been a few days since he’s shaved, and there’s idle curiosity in seeing what a beard would look like on him. “No biting at all.”</p><p>He pauses, attention back on Grogu.</p><p>Tiny. </p><p>Adorable. </p><p>Eminently portable as evidenced by the many people who’ve put hands on him who aren’t Din or the small group of people Din approves of being anywhere near Grogu.</p><p>“...Unless it’s to defend,” Din allows. Grudging and this touch of resignation because he knows Grogu and loopholes go together like nothing else and his words will come back to bite him – perhaps literally – at some point in the future.</p><p>Luke chuckles as Din finally finagles the shiny rock out of Grogu’s mouth, wiping it off on his arm before tucking it away for safekeeping. Notably when Grogu doesn’t feel the need to put it in his mouth again.</p><p>Crisis settled for the moment, Din moves to sit next to Luke.</p><p>He doesn’t say anything, but Luke knows him well enough by now to know he’s thinking. Trying to piece together who Luke Skywalker is, and why he’s always so smug about everything and why Grogu runs to him when he knows Din will tell him no.</p><p>“When we were born,” Luke says, the sting of what he’s about to tell Din having dulled over time, settled into something that aches like an old injury in the cold. “Leia and I were separated.”</p><p>For their own safety, although he still wonders about that.</p><p>It sounds right, but…he can’t help wonder if there could have been a better way.</p><p>Din makes a noise, low, displeased, and the sound of it draws a tired smile from Luke. Din’s heard this before, and he doesn’t understand it either.</p><p>“Leia was taken to Alderaan and raised by the Organas. I…” Luke shrugs again, because for all it’s been hears this wound hasn’t healed right. “Obi-Wan took me to Tatooine to be raised by Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru.”</p><p>And they died for it.</p><p>Luke sighs. “I’m just a farm boy from Tatooine,” he says, wry twist to his mouth at how boring he used to think it was. “Leia grew up as a princess on Alderaan.”</p><p>Grogu comes over, looking up at Luke with his big, wide eyes and little hands raised up in a universal gesture and Luke laughs as he obliges by picking him up.</p><p>Din hums, and Luke shares a smile with Grogu when he feels Din’s shoulder bump his as he takes the stick from Luke’s hands and fixes the mess Luke’s made of his fire.</p><p>========</p><p>“You know,” Luke’s father says, thoughtful tone to his voice. “Technically, your mother was royalty.”</p><p>Luke has no idea what to do with this information, what with the fact he’s currently dangling over a vat of molten metal and all.</p><p>Because reasons.</p><p>His father keeps talking, telling Luke about his mother, this note to his voice that makes Luke’s eyes sting although it could just as easily be due to the vat of molten metal far below.</p><p>“Oh?” he says, wondering if he the precariously positioned pipe he’s shimmying his way along will hold out long enough for him to make the leap to the precariously positioned section of catwalk. If it does, he might actually make it out of here and somewhere Din can tell him <i>I told you not to go alone, why are you always so stubborn about these things?</i> on solid ground the next time Luke sees him. “That’s good to know. Thank you for telling me.”</p><p>Luke’s father nods, and then points at a section of pipe Luke hasn’t made his way to just yet.</p><p>“Careful, it’s sharp,” he says, as if Luke’s biggest concern right now is getting a cut from rusted metal and -</p><p>Alright, it’s not his biggest concern but it is <i>a</i> concern.</p><p>“Thank you,” he says again, and bites back a laugh at the look his father gives him, helpless smile and this specific sort of amusement, and anyway. </p><p><i>Skywalkers indeed</i>, he thinks, and laughs again because he does so in Ben’s voice.</p><p>========</p><p>Din finds him, of course. </p><p>Flew all the way to this planet and what was supposed to be an abandoned facility after Luke assured him he’d be perfectly safe, and anyways, jetpacks are certainly handy things, aren’t they?</p><p>“My mother was the queen of Naboo,” he tells Din very seriously as Din looks him over for injuries.</p><p>Mumbles to himself about Luke’s dislocated shoulder, fractured ribs, and the palm of his hand scraped raw. Something else too, because there’s a little too much blood for those injuries. </p><p>Somehow, it seems important to tell Din this out of everything else Luke discovered on his little mission to the middle of nowhere looking for Jedi relics being sold on the black market.</p><p>“That’s nice,” Din says. “Now stop moving so I can get the bleeding under control.”</p><p>========</p><p>When Luke wakes up again he’s in medical back on Yavin. Has gotten, he has to admit with a touch of embarrassment, uncomfortably familiar with it, able to recognize it on sight.</p><p>“You’re lucky Din found you when he did,” is the first thing Leia says to him, and the tone of her voice makes him wish for the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness again. At least she can’t lecture him there. “Did he tell you anything else?”</p><p>Leia sounds too <i>senatorial</i> to be referring to Din. Icily polite like she’s a hair’s breadth from verbally skewering someone, so she must be talking about their father.</p><p>Luke closes his eyes and focuses on his breathing, his heartbeat, to ground himself.</p><p>Leia’s relationship with their father is complicated would be putting it too lightly. She knew him as Vader, and never as Anakin Skywalker, at least while he was still alive.</p><p>If he’s spoken to her now, as a Force ghost, Luke wouldn’t know. Doesn’t ask either of them because to do so seems unconscionably cruel.</p><p><i>You remind him of our mother</i>, he thinks, but doesn't say for the same reason.</p><p>“He was worried I might cut my hand,” Luke says, and smiles when Leia laughs.</p><p>========</p><p>Something definitely happened between the time Luke was dangling over a vat of molten metal and when he woke up in the medical suite on Yavin 4.</p><p>For one thing, Din starts bringing back gifts for Luke when he leaves to track a bounty or answer a call for help from his friends, and speaking to him more formally than he ever has.</p><p>For another, Han won’t stop bowing and calling Luke ‘your highness’ and other variations when their paths cross, which as it would happen, is often. Very often, with Han deliberately seeking Luke out no matter where he goes to avoid him because Han has that glint in his eye of a man who’s found something new to torment Luke with.</p><p>Lovingly, though.</p><p>Leia gives Luke her version of the serene Jedi smile and tells him she has no idea what he’s talking about, and he must be imagining things.</p><p>Artoo blows a raspberry and goes on an expletive filled rant about Skywalkers being menaces and headaches and he already did this once, no way he’s going to suffer through it again, and then goes to find Chewie since he’s the only one who’ll understand.</p><p>Anyway.</p><p>“Do <i>you</i> know what that’s all about?” </p><p>Luke’s tinkering on his X-wing after Artoo pointed out a slight discrepancy while running diagnostics after their last flight out.</p><p>Nothing serious, really, and well within parameters, but Luke likes working with his hands like this. Honestly misses it, losing himself in a project or even simple maintenance for a bit. Not much call for it after the war when the New Republic loved to trot out their Jedi to impress people with, and then...everything else.</p><p>It had been refreshing when he decided to start his school, taking the old base and what the Alliance left behind and building it up into something new. </p><p>There’s a distracted <i>hmm</i> and Luke rolls his eyes. Pushes the roller he’s using out from under his X-wing to give Ben a look.</p><p>His former master gives him a look right back, chin lifted as he looks down his nose at Luke, but the twinkle in his eye gives his amusement away.</p><p>“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about Luke,” he sniffs, leaning hard into his Coruscanti accent for effect. </p><p>“Uh-huh,” Luke says, and uses the back of his wrist to wipe at his cheek. It comes away smeared with grease. “Of course.”</p><p>Ben chuckles, dropping the pretense as he watches Luke.</p><p>He looks happy. Content. At peace in way Luke’s never seen.</p><p>Ben’s smile softens, as though he knows what Luke’s thinking.</p><p>“Your Mandalorian is courting you,” he says, and laughs at the way Luke chokes, coughs as he tries to protest anyone calling Din <i>his</i>.</p><p>It’s just.</p><p>It’s a nice thought, but not something that would ever happen.</p><p>Surely.</p><p>========</p><p>Luke doesn’t think about it for a while.</p><p>Mostly due to the fact he gets caught up with a group of smugglers and a woman who – like others Luke’s met – is not a fan of his father.</p><p>It’s a whole <i>thing</i> that involves the two of them being forced to work together in a survival situation in which she threatens to kill him more than once. </p><p>Naturally, he invites her back to his school once the situation is settled.</p><p>“Only you, kid,” Han sighs, watching Leia offer a tour to Mara who still has plans on Luke’s life, just. Later. When the time is right or whatever, and anyway. She’s delightful. “Only you.”</p><p>Luke thinks he sees Din lurking at the corner of his eye, but when he turns to look there’s no one there.</p><p>Odd.</p><p>========</p><p>When he does think about it, it’s because Wedge and the rest of the Rogues – for the lack of a better word – kidnap him.</p><p>“Why,” Luke asks, binders on his wrist and on the cold decking of a cargo freighter he hopes they haven’t stolen. “Why are you like this?”</p><p>In theory Wedge is a respectable man, high-ranking officer in the New Republic military and decorated war hero. </p><p>In practice, he’s...this.</p><p>“Don’t worry about it, Luke,” he says, in exactly the right way to make Luke worry. “It’ll be fine.”</p><p>========</p><p>It is not, in fact, fine.</p><p>========</p><p>Han can’t stop laughing, Leia is Annoyed, and Din is off somewhere. Went to see his friends or something while Luke was otherwise occupied.</p><p>========</p><p>The one good thing that came of Wedge and the Rogues kidnapping Luke is that he has a lead to follow regarding that whole unfortunate situation that had Luke dangling over a vat of molten metal.</p><p>“Are you sure you can trust this information?” Din asks, obviously of the mind Luke is an idiot if he says he does.</p><p>So.</p><p>“Kind of,” Luke says, and isn’t all that surprised when Din takes hold of his arm and steers him to his ship rather than let Luke climb into his X-wing to head off into danger on his own after the last time he did. “Oh, okay then.”</p><p>Din snorts, and Luke can’t help the smile that breaks across his face at the sound, even if it’s at his expense.</p><p>========</p><p>There’s an ambush and several hours trapped in small cages placed side-by-side as they wait for an opportune moment to escape.</p><p>“You know,” Luke says, thought hitting him out of nowhere. “I miss blue milk.”</p><p>He’s not sure what makes him think of that, makes him voice the thought out loud. Suspects it could be an undiagnosed concussion after the hit to the head that dropped him once Din went down to a tranquilizer dart, who can say.</p><p>Din sighs, and Luke almost misses it when he confesses to missing a dish his mother made, flare of grief through the Force before he tucks it away again, another wound that hasn’t healed right.</p><p>=======</p><p>The smugglers aren’t particularly malicious, cruel, just. </p><p>Resourceful. </p><p>Easy to subdue once he and Din break out of their cages, and honestly, not much of a threat. </p><p>“The New Republic can deal with them,” Luke says, watching as a pair of X-wings land nice ad neat next to their ship. </p><p>Din groans when the pilots hop out, clearly recognizing them.</p><p>“Old friends of yours?” Luke asks, when the pilots clearly recognize Din as well, one of them breaking into a wide grin.</p><p>Din shoots him a look, not amused. “No.”</p><p>========</p><p>Mara’s the only one Luke can trust not to laugh at him about this. Given her connection to Kaarde and his organization she’s also the likeliest person he knows who can get her hands on what he needs.</p><p>“Skywalker,” she says, like Luke’s something she scraped off the bottom of her boots. “What do you want?”</p><p>“I have a favor to ask,” he says.</p><p>Mara stares at him.</p><p>Luke stares back.</p><p>Eventually, she sighs.</p><p>“Fine,” she says. “But no one finds out about this or I’ll kill you.”</p><p>========</p><p>See? Delightful.</p><p>========</p><p>“Unbelievable,” Mara says, once Luke tells her what the favor is, shaking her head and muttering something that sounds like <i>idiots</i> and <i>perfect matches</i> and <i>I hate them both.</i></p><p>========</p><p>A few weeks later Mara corners Luke on a rise overlooking the school.</p><p>It’s more of a cliff, really.</p><p>Long way down, and Luke doubts even a Jedi master would survive the fall. He likes the solitude up here. Likes to come here to meditate, or simply watch the goings on around the school below.</p><p>“Uh,” Luke says, because she looks angry? </p><p>No, annoyed. </p><p>Like she can’t believe she keeps visiting, and clearly it’s all Luke’s fault, and anyway.</p><p>“Mara, hello.”</p><p>Mara glares at him for a long moment, and then closes her eyes. Breathes. Clearly working through meditation techniques.</p><p>When she opens her eyes, she seems less likely to shove Luke off the cliff behind him.</p><p>“Here,” she says, clenched jaw and narrowed eyes, shoving a box at him. It’s surprisingly heavy. </p><p>Luke - </p><p>Mara leans in, faster than Luke expects her to. Grabs his collar and pulls him close. “No one finds out I helped you, got it, Skywalker?”</p><p>Realization hits Luke, and he looks down at the box in his hands with new appreciation. </p><p>Mara tugs on his collar to get his attention again. The corners of her mouth twitch, annoyed facade slipping.</p><p>“Do we have an understanding, Skywalker?”</p><p>Luke smiles.</p><p>“We do,” he says, which is true even if the others don’t quite get it. Also, though. “Thank you, Mara.”</p><p>Mara snorts, flicker of amusement in her eyes as she releases him and turns to leave. “Don’t get any ideas in that head of yours, Skywalker.”</p><p>========</p><p>There are instructions in the box Mara gave him, detailed step-by-step instructions. There are even pictures, and yet - </p><p>“Luke?”</p><p>Luke winces, looking over his shoulder to where Din’s standing at the door to the kitchens.</p><p>“Din, hey” he says, and in what he hopes is a discreet manner shoves the pan on the stove into the sink.</p><p>Judging by the look Din gives him, it was not at all discreet.</p><p>Probably all the noise it made.</p><p>“Should I ask?” Din asks.</p><p>Luke thinks about it, but the smokey haze hanging around the kitchen deserves an answer.</p><p>“I was cooking,” Luke says, and pretends he doesn’t hear Din’s <i>oh, no</i>. Luke shrugs. “It didn’t go well.”</p><p>Din hums, and Luke rolls his eyes at the sheer amusement rolling off him. Fondness, really.</p><p>“I see,” Din says, and Luke huffs as he walks over to get a better look at the mess Luke’s created. “What - “</p><p>Luke looks away, gaze landing on his hands brace on the counter before him. </p><p>Various ingredients Din must recognize, realize what Luke had attempted to do. Thankfully he doesn’t seem upset or angry, but other than that he can’t tell what Din feels about it.</p><p>“I asked Mara to get them for me,” he says, waving a hand at the remaining ingredients.</p><p>It’s not so much that they’re hard to find as it is finding them and getting them here fresh and without drawing too much attention from the others.</p><p>He could have asked Han to do it for him, no doubt that he would have, but it’s Han and he’d ask Luke why he needed them, and anyway.</p><p>“I just. You mentioned that you missed it, so…” Luke waves a hand at the stove, smoke nearly gone, and sighs. </p><p>He doesn’t know what he’s expecting Din’s reaction to be, but it certainly isn’t for him to walk away, which.</p><p>Right.</p><p>Okay.</p><p>Not like this whole effort might not be welcome, what with Din’s past, the things he’s mentioned about his family and - </p><p>“Where the hell is it?”</p><p>Luke turns around to see Din rooting through the conservator for something.</p><p>Still in the room, which is a surprise to Luke who thought he’d left and all. </p><p>He wants to ask what he’s looking for, but there’s a set to Din’s shoulders that reads as something that wouldn’t take well to Luke interrupting, so. He stays quiet and watches, and after a few moments Din makes this little noise, a <i>there</i> it is kind of thing, and looks to Luke, whatever he found hidden by his body and the conservator’s door.</p><p>After a moment Din steps back to close the conservator door, and Luke’s eyes widen as he sees what Din’s holding.</p><p>“Is that blue milk?” he asks, as if it’s not obvious. And then, “Did you - “</p><p>Din looks at Luke. Then he looks at the stove, and the sink, and Luke doesn’t blush, he just. Alright, no,  he does, just.</p><p>“You’re laughing at me, aren’t you?”</p><p>Din tilts his head, but doesn’t say he isn’t, and Luke sighs as he goes over to a cabinet and pulls out a couple of glasses. </p><p>========</p><p>Din looks over Luke’s shoulder as he sets about cleaning up his mess, and studies the leftover ingredients.</p><p>“I tried to cook it once,” he says, and Luke thinks he’s smiling. “It also didn’t go well.”</p><p>Luke rolls his eyes, smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Rub it in, why don’t you,” he mutters, smile widening at Din’s quiet laugh.</p><p>“<i>So</i>, Din says, as though Luke didn’t speak. “She taught me to make something else instead.”</p><p>Luke goes still, watching Din who’s watching him. </p><p>Waiting.</p><p>“Oh?” Luke says, knowing a cue when he hears one. “What was it?”</p><p>========</p><p>Grogu wanders in while Din’s supervising Luke’s vegetable preparation, surprisingly critical regarding what constitutes dice versus mince, and really, Luke never expected this side of him.</p><p>“Dice,” Din says like Luke’s an idiot, holding his index finger and thumb the appropriate distance apart as he picks Grogu up and sets him on the counter a safe distance away from sharp kitchen implements. “<i>Dice</i>.”</p><p>Luke sighs, and bites back a smile when he hears Grogu laugh.</p><p>Din huffs, but his shoulder bumps Luke’s as he reaches for a container of spice, and it’s a far better end to the day than he expected after his earlier cooking disaster.</p><p>========</p><p>“You know,” Luke’s father says. “Your Mandalorian is doing a far better job of it with you than I did with your mother.”</p><p>Luke isn’t even properly awake yet, and definitely not capable of even a vague understanding what he’s talking about.</p><p>“What?”</p><p>And then, when what his father said actually registers, he opens his eyes to see his father leaning against his bedroom wall. There's a small smile on his face, one of those complicated ones he gets sometimes.</p><p>“He’s not <i>my</i> Mandalorian,” Luke says, automatic response by now with the amount of people in Luke’s life who keep saying that.</p><p>His father raises an eyebrow, and Luke raises one right back.</p><p>“I don’t even know what you said means,” Luke says, because he doesn’t.</p><p>Oh, he understands the words individually, but the way his father tossed them together makes no sense to Luke.</p><p>His father shakes his head, as if Luke is failing to grasp the simplest of concepts, but when he looks at Luke again the smile on his face is soft. </p><p>“Obi-Wan’s right about us Skywalkers, you know,” he says, for once the annoyance he tends to show when forced to admit such things absent. “It’s rather annoying.”</p><p>“I don’t know what that means either,” Luke says, and, oh, look. That’s where his father’s annoyance went, creeping into his voice and the scowl Luke can feel forming because he didn’t get to bed until late, and it’s far too early for this.</p><p>His father laughs, real, happy, and the smile on his face is blinding. “You’ll figure it out,” he says, starting to fade away. Luke sees a frown start to form just before he’s gone, and hears, “Probably, anyway. You <i>are</i> a Skywalker after all.”</p><p>Luke stares at the spot where his father was standing, tired and confused and feeling oddly like his own father just insulted him.</p><p>========</p><p><i>Oh</i>, Luke thinks a few weeks later, his X-wing a smoking ruin behind him, along with the pair of TIE fighters that shot him down in a similar state thanks to Din. Din who is right there in front of him, forehead pressed against his with his hands cupping Luke’s face like he’s something precious. <i>That’s what he meant</i>.</p>
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